I'm always reluctant to give the monkeys objects or expose them to experiences they wouldn't have in the wild. Which doesn't make much sense since they nurse(d) from baby bottles, cover themselves with blankets, and swing from tires among other "unnatural" things. Not to mention that they've been raised listening to human language...Chiquito is undoubtedly more bilingual than I am. So after visiting The Jungle Place in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, and seeing how fascinated the spider monkeys there were with stainless steel mirrors and big plastic balls, I ordered some primate toys that neighbors are muling down in a couple of weeks.

Eating a peanut in the shell.

And today, when Chiquito grabbed an empty bleach bottle after Paul finished cleaning his cage I thought, "Hey, I'll make an enrichment toy out of that." We drilled a couple of holes in the bottom, but trying to get raisins through them would have been more frustrating than fun on the first attempt. So I took the cap off and loaded a dozen raisins and a handful of peanuts-in-the-shell. For one worrisome moment I was afraid Chiquito would get his hand stuck in the bottle, but he's a smart monkey. Tomorrow I'll leave the cap on and let him figure out how to unscrew it...

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In the jungle with the monkeys.

Michele Gawenka

Jane Goodall has always been my hero, and working with primates an aspiration. Africa wasn't in the cards the summer I turned 16, when my parents offered to send me to volunteer, and there was only one class (in physical anthro-pology) when I wanted to study primatology in college. Decades later my husband and I retired in Costa Rica, and this is our journey with spider (and howler) monkeys.